It's been too long!

I have missed you all so much!! Life has just been crazy and is finally slowing down a bit. This will be a quick post...pictures of our new kitchen that is SO close to FINISHED! We love it all so far, but I can't wait to see the final product and decorate a bit. Here's a sneak peek...

Our laundry room...newly painted. We used a beautiful color by Benjamin Moore. I thought it would be too light, but as things have come together, it's the perfect blend. Thanks Alison!

 Our new stove top!

Our new, SPACIOUS pantry, refrigerator and sink!

Our new window seat! We got the best fabric for the window seat pillow...I can't wait to show you!

We didn't know we were going to do this when we started, but I'm so glad we did!! We painted our fire place cover black. It used to be brass.

Ok, that's all I have for now, but the final before and after pictures will come soon! We have a few things to get done....as you can see from the pictures.

Miss you all and hope to get back to regular blogging soon!!

White Pumpkins

All of a sudden, a love of fall has hit me. I woke up this morning and ran with my best friend in 60 degree weather. Yes, 60 degrees in Texas...that is FALL folks! It was so pleasant. To celebrate the cool weather, I stopped at Starbucks on my way to work and picked up my first pumpkin spiced latte for the year. DELICIOUS! I think it's up to 90 degrees by now, but that's besides the point, I'm very thankful for my "fall" moment this morning:).

Speaking of fall, I am eager to decorate this year for some reason. Something that has really inspired me is white pumpkins! I love the way they look and I can't wait to get in our house and start decorating it immediately...stashing white pumpkins in every corner. Hahaha...just kidding...I won't go overboard, but I'm very excited about them.

I was reading Country Living and I love their ideas for decorating pumpkins with fabric designs. I am going to try this out and I will let you know how it goes. I'm not all that crafty:). What a neat, fun way to celebrate fall with bright colors!

 Are you excited for fall?? You will be now with these beautiful candles from Pottery Barn!

Finally...Vacation Friday!

It's been a while since we escaped together on vacation. A wonderful blog I follow, Shorely Chic, recently reminded me of a place I have read a lot about and hope to get to one day...The Ocean House in Watch Hill Rhode Island! Are you ready to be dazzled by the East Coast?

Doesn't it look amazing?! It encompasses of everything I love about the East Coast. I wish I was sitting on the porch of the Ocean House with a cocktail in my hand right about now. Hope some of you are able to relax with this kind of scenery surrounding you this weekend!

The kitchen is coming along!

Here's a view of our window seat. There will be drawers for storage under the seat and I have picked out a fun fabric for the pillow seat.

 Our cabinet bases are installed! In fact, the doors and drawers were put in yesterday and it looks great!

This is our refrigerator space with some great cabinet space above for platters, place mats, etc! My mother in-law did an incredible job of designing special compartments for all our kitchen stuff.

That's all the pics I have for now, but I'll take more soon. The painting is almost complete, crown molding is up, the popcorn is off our ceiling and the ceiling is painted. The ceiling looks amazing..it feels like it's 10 feet tall, rather than 8 feet tall now!

Hope you are all doing well. Sorry I have not been great at blogging lately...I work for a non-profit and have a 5K event next weekend. Things have been busy!!

Remodel madness...

Well, it's not really madness...our remodel is actually going fairly quickly. I went over to the house a couple days ago and there was dust, paint, tools, etc everywhere! Literally dust was coming out of every window...I couldn't even go in and sneak a peek. That made me a little nervous. However, when we arrived last night, we could see the beauty! They have finished taking down the popcorn ceiling and have textured all of our walls and ceilings. It looks great and hasn't even been painted yet! It is amazing what a difference it makes to remove the popcorn from our ceilings. Each room looks completely new and the ceilings feel higher without globs of paint (or whatever it is they use to create the "popcorn" effect) hanging from the ceiling. These pictures are terrible, but give you some idea of what it's looking like...

Not sure why these pictures are so awful. Sorry...

So, where are we at now? Cabinet boxes will be installed tomorrow and the counter top guy will come out on Monday to measure. It really is all coming together! I get so excited every time we walk inside. Also, we got news that our backsplash and the pillow for our breakfast window seat are ready. Eeeeeekkk...I just can't wait to see it all together!

Weekend of escaping the heat!

B and I just got back from a very relaxing weekend in Colorado! I haven't been to the mountains in the summer in a long while and I had forgotten how amazing it is. High in the 80's, lows in the 40's and 50's. It was unbelievable! We spent our days fly fishing, hiking, watching football by the fire, eating outside, looking for wildlife, and sitting by the river for happy hour. It was such a treat. I could literally live outdoors in the summer...at least I could in Colorado. I will post some pictures soon. I know I always say this...I am terrible at uploading pictures and I'm so sorry for that!

When we were flying back to Austin last night, we were watching the news on the terrible wildfires that were breaking out all around the city, especially in Bastrop, TX. Please keep all the families affected by these fires in your thoughts and prayers. It was so unbelievable to see how quickly these fires destroy neighborhoods. It's just crazy to think that while some struggle with terrible flooding and hurricanes, someone else is struggling with a terrible drought and wildfires.

We are done with weekend vacations for a while, which makes me sad. So, please, share all the details of the trips you all take, so I can soak up some vacation fun! My inbox had quite a treat this morning...the Vineyard Vines fall collection. Boy do they have some cute stuff!! I wish I had this in Colorado...

I have been tempted to buy the man's version of the shep shirt because the female version did not exist and I absolutely love it. Well guess what...the female version now exists! I just want to wrap up in it...even though it won't be cool enough to wear this in Texas for another couple months.

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend and I'll be in touch tomorrow with some more pictures of our kitchen remodel. I stopped by today and it's a little scary looking!!!